Aberdeen 0 Rangers 1: match report
Read a full match report of the SPL match between Aberdeen and Rangers at Pittodrie on Wednesday April 14, 2011, kick-off 1945BST.
Head over heels: Nikica Jelavic celebrates his brilliant overhead kick that sealed victory for Rangers Photo: PA
By Roddy Forsyth 10:21PM BST 13 Apr 2011
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Another timely goal from Nikica Jelavic – what an asset he has begun to prove for Rangers in the closing stages of the league campaign – saw them survive a trip to a ground where they have regularly suffered poor results. Back to within two points of Celtic, Rangers will leapfrog their opponents if they beat St Mirren at home on Saturday.
This, meanwhile, was the fourth successive 1-0 win for one or other of the Old Firm sides as they jostle towards the finishing line. Yet, had they been up against more ruthless opposition Rangers would have found the game – and their title prospects – drifting out of reach almost from the kick-off.
Twice within the space of a minute they allowed Josh Magennis to deliver tempting balls into their box and in both cases they reached Sone Aluko 12 yards out and with the target clearly in his sights.
On the first occasion he kicked air and on the second he swiped his attempt over the top. He might have made it third time lucky but the next opportunity fell to Magennis from a knockdown header by Scott Vernon and the Northern Irishman struck a strong angled drive on the bounce which Allan McGregor did well to beat away.
Maurice Edu was pulled back from his midfield beat to improvise at right-back and looked vulnerable to Aluko’s direct running from midfield, but these petered out as Rangers exerted a grip on that area of the field where Steven Davis and Steven Naismith continually probed and prodded to effect. The swing of pressure began when Chris Maguire carelessly played an in-field pass straight into the path of Sasa Papac close to the Aberdeen box.
The Bosnian immediately tried to draw blood but was thwarted when Jamie Langfield blocked the attempt and he struck the rebound straight at the goalkeeper. This scare for Aberdeen was promptly followed by another when Jelavic and Kyle Lafferty combined to force the first – and only – corner kick of the half.
A third warning was posted by Jelavic with a booming drive that swept wide before he adjusted his sights to spectacular effect exactly midway through the half. The prompt was a free-kick by McGregor, knocked on towards the Croatian striker who took the ball on his chest and struck a shot on the drop over his shoulder into the far corner of the net from the edge of the box.
It was a dramatic goal in style and implication and it lifted Rangers’ spirits visibly. They could not, however, fashion another to give them a margin of comfort and when the contest crept on into the second half with no change to the score, the champions became edgy.
In an attempt to put more fuel in the midfield tank Walter Smith replaced Jamie Ness with Kyle Hutton and Gregg Wylde with El Hadji Diouf at the three-quarter way mark but composure was at a premium in the Rangers back line.
They survived one major alarm when Whittaker was ambushed while pressing towards the halfway line and Maguire came close with a swirling effort that went just wide to the relief of the large travelling support in the crowd of 11,925.
Their brows were even more fevered when Whittaker was judged to have handled outside the box and Maguire played a clever free-kick past the edge of the Rangers wall for Robert Milsom to thrash back across the goal where Edu had to boot off the line after the ball came off McGregor and the post. While the Ibrox side continued to suffer from the jitters, Aberdeen could get no closer.
Match details
Aberdeen (4-4-2): Langfield; Young, Diamond, Considine, Smith (Robertson 56); Magennis (Blackman 80), Jack, Milsom, Aluko; Maguire, Vernon. Subs: Howard (g), Vujadinovic, Pawlett, Paton, Shaughnessy. Booked: Diamond.
Rangers (4-4-2): McGregor; Edu, Whittaker, Weir, Papac; Naismith, Davis, Ness (Hutton 66), Wylde (Diouf 65); Jelavic (Healy 88), Lafferty. Subs: Alexander (g), Fleck, Kerkar. Booked: Ness, Edu.
Referee: C Murray.
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